Fear of singing on stage; of not being able to rely on your voice to reach that one note, that beautiful pitch causes a stressed voice! Fear comes from trying something and failing at it. And then trying it again and again and repeating the failure till you are a jabbering wreck. Or you just Continue Reading
Teachers – Have you ever dreamed of having a winner in a major competition? Ever had a student who constantly failed at auditioning? They can sing beautifully, but put them in front of the judges and they crumble to dust. In this article I outline the pitfalls that can give vocal teachers headaches when things Continue Reading
Getting that great voice is the ultimate aim; the cherry on the cake for anyone who ever stood in the lights, in centre stage. if this is your passion, read on. How do you know you are ‘looking’ at a beautiful, genuine Voice? What are the qualities of the perfect pitch, tone, freedom, that gets Continue Reading
A conversation with my student. She came for help and was looking really stressed. This is how it went…. Student: These days I am suffering a lot from sore shoulders and my arms tend to be very achy. What can I do about this? I have been to the chiropractor often and although he helps Continue Reading
“I can sing, I just don’t know how to sing!” Well that sounds like a ridiculous statement. But honestly, do you really know how it happens. Singing is after all a natural activity. I have been doing it since I was tiny. And you? As much as you can breathe, you can sing. Yet any Continue Reading
Breathing and performance anxiety are a marriage. To ignore either one is at the expense of the other. Here I will expand on the importance of finding the balance. F. M. Alexander : I do not claim to have discovered any new method of breathing, but to understand the only true one – Nature’s. My Continue Reading
My new students often tell me they have throat or neck tension; the more they sing the worse it gets. It nibbles away at their confidence till the only way out is to give up singing. Have you ever felt like this yourself? Tension has a way of creeping up on you! Without you recognizing Continue Reading
I often wonder whether singers who have made fame like Amy Winehouse; Cilla Black or Freddy Mercury ever suffered pre-performance panic attacks. Most singers struggle with anxiety about singing a whole phrase in one breath. There is a way not round this but through this. And it has to do with what you think you Continue Reading
Huh! I forgot to breathe? Me?….No!….. Never!…… Not me! Even now it seems impossible. Impossible that I often held my breath. I was told this often until I accepted it WAS true. It is surprisingly common even among singers. When this becomes a chronic state for a singer, the whole person is compromised. You end Continue Reading
Not surprising that she had a problem. Her neck was strained. Her breath coming in small sharp gasps. As she was talking to me I noticed her struggle to speak. I asked her what made her breathe and like most of us she said her diaphragm. This idea is obvious of course, yet it is Continue Reading
